By Arjan Schouten
Speed skater Ted-Jan Bloemen made it to CNN in 2018 when he became the first Olympic athlete ever to travel to the 2018 Winter Games with a crypto-based contract. Now, four years later, even the country’s most popular athletes such as Rico Verhoeven, Michael van Gerwen, Memphis Depay and Max Verstappen are advertising bitcoins. Bybit, the fastest growing provider in the world, will pay around 130 million euros to Red Bull Racing over three years to take advantage of the multimillion-dollar podium of Formula 1 world champion Verstappen, who appears in a commercial. A still fairly modest investment in the world of crypto-currencies, by the way. Gigant Crypto.com recently put down $700 million to stand on the LA Lakers’ home. Reason for competitor FTX to buy the naming rights of the Miami Heat arena for 400 million.